An editorial in the Register-Guard today points out a recent ban in California on suction dredge mining will drive even more of the private mine operators onto Southern Oregon Rivers.
According to the RG, suction dredge miners are “destabilizing configurations of rock, gravel and fine sediment that have taken many years to form and that provide a stable, predictable habitat important to the survival of spawning salmon and steelhead.”
Governor Kulongoski, Senators Wyden and Merkley and Rep DeFazio have pleaded to the Obama administration to take the Siskiyou streams out of further mining development, but you can try to put further pressure by contacting the Department of the Interior.
-MS
Done. Thanks for the warning. Dredge-mining is a destructive sport with no redeeming qualities.
I am a flyfisherman and I also do some recreational gold dredging and I think that dredging can improve fish habitat. I would never use a small dredge in any way that would harm any fish eggs or for that matter any stone-fly larvae. I would hope that all “recreational gold dredgers” would take care of the waterways! I leave nothing but footprints! I pick up trash and cig butts from fisherman and campers everwhere I go. There has to be room for all of us. Where all americans!! Lets get the facts and science before we make new laws! If I ever found one smolt or any eggs I wouldn’t dredge anymore…….. truth and freedom!